Blog #8:
http://http//yvettebourgeoisthtr4130.blogspot.com/
Blog #9:
http://laurengraham512.blogspot.com/2014/11/blog-post-9.html?showComment=1415065738096#c5068762168812553604
Blog #10:
http://gracieperformancetheory.blogspot.com/2014/11/empathy.html?showComment=1415918876190#c7857020775739626817
Blog #11
http://muffinsthtr4130.blogspot.com/2014/11/when-life-gives-you-lemons-squirt.html#comment-form
Blog #12
http://laurengraham512.blogspot.com/2014/12/final-blog-post.html?showComment=1417643265484#c6054298126922121584
Monday, October 27, 2014
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Time & Pace
Reality, real time, the now, the happening, the present. This is what most people crave. No one wants to be around fake people with unrealistic expectations, people want to be around realness and rawness. Not faked or staged, though there is a time for this as in theater. Yet, many reality shows with their scripts, lights and makeup attempt to show how "real life" - insert your favorite reality show - happen.
In theatre, time is of the essence. If a story line needs to be told within a ten year duration, it must be communicated to the audience through various factors in showing how ten years has passed. As we saw with the Twitter plays, time was shown as it actually passed. As we discussed in class, the twitter play Next to Normal lasted thirty five days reinforcing the reality effect of the play developing over time, real time.
We can see through other multi-tweet examples, the power of pace on the reality effect on these multi-tweet plays. Particularly, I enjoyed the plays where the characters attained their own account and would tweet as if what was happening to them was an everyday occurrence. Seeing their individual issues and reactions helped to relate the followers, audience, in the "right here, right now".
As for an example of a performance piece that I think has achieved this goal, I thought of the 6 1/2 year journey of one young girl taking a photo of herself for those six years and putting them together in a time lapse. Although, Yvette beat me to it and used this as her example I thought I would find another time lapse that I saw fitting. I think examples of time lapse videos are important to note how time and pace is used to show the difference in "..the so-called real and the so-called fictional." I have always been a huge fan of sunrises and found a really cool time lapse of a sunrise (music added for drama of course). What interested me was how the guy ended the video with playing it backwards and ending it back to the sun down. Just go ahead and watch it for yourself and see!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi4MaJKd1gA
In theatre, time is of the essence. If a story line needs to be told within a ten year duration, it must be communicated to the audience through various factors in showing how ten years has passed. As we saw with the Twitter plays, time was shown as it actually passed. As we discussed in class, the twitter play Next to Normal lasted thirty five days reinforcing the reality effect of the play developing over time, real time.
We can see through other multi-tweet examples, the power of pace on the reality effect on these multi-tweet plays. Particularly, I enjoyed the plays where the characters attained their own account and would tweet as if what was happening to them was an everyday occurrence. Seeing their individual issues and reactions helped to relate the followers, audience, in the "right here, right now".
As for an example of a performance piece that I think has achieved this goal, I thought of the 6 1/2 year journey of one young girl taking a photo of herself for those six years and putting them together in a time lapse. Although, Yvette beat me to it and used this as her example I thought I would find another time lapse that I saw fitting. I think examples of time lapse videos are important to note how time and pace is used to show the difference in "..the so-called real and the so-called fictional." I have always been a huge fan of sunrises and found a really cool time lapse of a sunrise (music added for drama of course). What interested me was how the guy ended the video with playing it backwards and ending it back to the sun down. Just go ahead and watch it for yourself and see!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi4MaJKd1gA
Friday, October 17, 2014
"Space Drive"
With my director's hat on, I would absolutely love to see a
production inside of a moving van. The closest I have ever seen something like
this is Mutemath's music video, Spotlight. For this music video, all the space
is used for the performance. The back of the ban is gutted out to make room for
instruments and the band themselves. They played, sang, clapped, danced inside.
The front was never shown but understand to be where the camera was positioned.
I see this as a transformed space. If I were to use this same space and create
a production to perform inside of this moving van, we would need to find a way
for an audience even to be present. A possible idea is to have a live streaming
of it while the audience was in another moving next to, behind or even in front
of the man where the performers will be.
This environmental theatre would serve as
a diminishing factor along the lines of the interaction between the audience
and the performers. Even possible arguments could include how this is different
than someone watching a YouTube video on their own. I would assert some time
before and after for an interaction to happen between the audience and the
performers. Something that would be interesting to work out would be the
possibility of having both vans stop and one or two audience members join in
the performing van.
When I first read Kantor's quote, I found
myself agreeing with his view because countless times people go to see a theatre
piece that the story has been established and everyone knows how it begins and
ends. Then after thinking about it for a bit more, I disagree with this view
because even in those times where we know where the story is bringing us, there
can be elements of surprise. Especially, with performance art, no one really
knows how everything is going to turn out so there is space for "drama to
be materialized."
Here's the link for the music video to get a sense of performance in a moving vehicle which would be pretty awesome to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry6GAwDCI2I
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Post #6 Performance art!
It is true that today anything faster is better. The time it takes to connect to wifi or ordering that complicated coffee drink even taking the perfect selfie is wanted instantly. Though it is refreshing to see in real time the connection between people meeting for the first time, enjoying every bite of a meal and simple being with a friend face-to-face. I do not see theatre becoming completely diluted in that hopefully we will always desire those "present" times rather than a click away. Personally, it is hard to always be in that mode of truly being present somewhere without thinking of 101 things and more. Every time I catch myself in that state, I resent being there but it so easy and convenient to not be in the present. Abramovic's performance art does exactly the opposite. She is all there and no where else. My favorite piece of hers is one we watched in class, "The Artist is Present". Here is a beautiful performance art piece where she opens up for people to sit across from her and stare. No dialogue, no faces, just being present.
For the second question, my thoughts immediately went to the Highland Coffees ordeal. Personally, I have not been face to face with the owner or the landlord wanting to sell HC but after countless articles, blogs, comments, and conversations, the story I know now has been filtered through many perspectives and lenses. I know people of both extremes, furious that it's closing and excited for a new beginning somewhere else. The Tuesday after everyone heard the news I went to HC for a few hours and I felt very present there. I took time looking around at the structure, the paintings, the people, even focused on the smells and sounds because in that moment I was conscious of mine and everyone else's presence there. Mainly because as of now in a few months no one will be "present" there.
After reading this article, all I could think of is, "Really another restaurant and most likely bar?!" Why?! But now I see how what other people were sharing about the closing changed my view of the place. Instead of being thankful and remembering the good times there, I found myself on the side of being angry that a wonderful local business would be replaced with yet another restaurant, assumingly to bring bigger bucks into the area.
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